Twitter has come to be a place which politicians the world over use to communicate with their followers. In recent years, it has become a platform that has made politicians accessible to the common man, where they can share their problems, tag the concerned minister and if they are lucky enough, there’s a possibility of getting a response. Sushma Swaraj and Suresh Prabhu. Rings a bell?

But it’s also a world full of trolls ready to slice anyone and everyone for that one tweet that went wrong. Not just trolls, there are parody and fake accounts of renowned people who don’t miss a chance when it comes to mocking, ridiculing, being sarcastic or generally making fun of people on the micro-blogging site. Therefore, one must be careful while using those 140 characters especially the ones whose opinions and thoughts hold some value.

Something similar happened with the national spokesperson for the Indian National Congress Manish Tiwari, when he tweeted about former Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai’s proposition on a more bold military posture in the country and India’s interest in it. “#Karzai’s homily for bolder military posture in Afghanistan begs the Ques:What strategic Interests does India have in #graveyardofempires,” tweeted Tiwari and guess what? He got a reply from Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar — just that, it wasn’t from the real one!

“Manish, we should not send troops anywhere,” said the parody account, in all seriousness, which describes itself as “Parody Account of a Tea Connoisseur and self-declared intellectual giant. Slightly pompous. Love Macaulay. Legend (in my own mind).” Looks like Tiwari didn’t have enough time to check if it was real or fake and went on to reply, “I agree. In hindsight was Sri Lanka-87 an avoidable commitment? could it have been handled differently? Jingoistic Gen’s prevailed!” And it continued as the fake Aiyar asked him to join for a drink of single malt.

Well, eventually Tiwari did realise that it was the leader’s parody account but his response is pretty awesome. “Whosever you are real ,fake parody or spoof u still owe me a Single Malt Cheers & enjoy,” tweeted Tiwari.

@ManiShankarIyer whosever you are real ,fake parody or spoof u still owe me a Single Malt🌶🌶😬😀Cheers & enjoy